1. J. Trop. Resour. Sustain. Sci. 3 (2015): 13-17
ISSN Number: 2289-3946
© 2015 UMK Publisher. All rights reserved.
13
Behaviour of Captive Ostriches (Struthio camelus) at Universiti Malaysia Kelantan,
Bachok Campus, Kelantan, Malaysia
Kamarul Hambali*, Nadia Zakaria, Norashikin Fauzi, Aainaa Amir
Faculty of Earth Science, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, Jeli Campus, 17600 Jeli, Kelantan, Malaysia.
Received 31 March 2015
Accepted 26 April 2015
Available online 25 May 2015
Keywords:
Captive ostriches, behavioural
patterns, Bachok Campus, Kelantan,
Malaysia
⌧*Corresponding author:
Dr. Kamarul Hambali,
Faculty of Earth Science, Universiti
Malaysia Kelantan, Jeli Campus,
17600 Jeli, Kelantan, Malaysia.
Email: kamarul@umk.edu.my
A b s t r a c t
The behavioural patterns of six captive ostriches (Struthio camelus) were
studied at Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, Bachok Campus between July and
September 2014. The main purpose of the study was to determine the
behavioural patterns of ostriches in captivity to provide the useful information
for better management action. The ostriches were observed daily for 11 hours
from 0700 hrs until 1800 hrs for 45 days by using the focal sampling technique.
Six categories of behavioural patterns were observed namely resting,
locomotion, ingestive, comfort, aggression and thermoregulation. The highest
behaviour observed was walking compared to other behaviours, while the
lowest was running. The result of the study showed a significant difference of
behavioural patterns of captive ostriches between different observational
periods except for locomotion and aggression behaviours. The finding of the
study showed that ostriches reared in captivity possessed similar behavioural
patterns to those remaining in the wild, although some captive circumstances
imposed minor differences.
© 2015 UMK Publisher. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Struthio camelus is originated from the Greek
words meaning of ‘camel sparrow’ given by the
Swedish scientist, Carl Linnaeus. Struthio means
"ostrich" and camelus means "camel" based on the
similarities between the ostrich and camel; inhabit dry
habitat, long neck and two strong, long legs. The
ostrich (Struthio camelus) is a sole representative of the
order of birds known as ratites (running birds) or
Struthioniformes; the heaviest and largest living bird in
the wild (Hallam, 1992; Alden et al., 1996). They are
flightless birds and the only extant bird with two toes
on each foot (Schaller et al., 2011). It is the largest
flightless, herbivorous bird, found in a range of open
habitat types and is endemic to Africa (Brown et al.,
1982). They have long neck and legs and the fastest
land speed of bird with the speed up to about 70 km/h
(43 mph) (Davies, 2003). They can lay the largest eggs
that can weigh up to 1.4 kilograms and the ostrich itself
usually weigh from 63 to 103 kilograms or as much as
two adult humans (Davies, 2003). For the life span, the
maximum longevity reportedly is 50 years (Human
Ageing Genomic Resources, 2006).
The meaning of behaviour is a response in a
particular way to the environmental conditions.
Ostriches in the wild habitat have certain behavioural
patterns that enable them to adapt to their natural
environment. However, behavioural patterns in
captivity may differ due to different environmental
factors. Normal behaviour of ostrich are usually relate
to their daily living activities like socialization,
feeding, communication, grooming and sexual
activities. Among of the activities are twirling,
thermoregulatory, pecking, grooming, trembling, and

2. J. Trop. Resour. Sustain. Sci. 3 (2015): 13-17
ISSN Number: 2289-3946
© 2015 UMK Publisher. All rights reserved.
14
threat. As referred to the pecking behaviour, according
to Newberry et al., (2007), in the wild, pecking is a
natural behaviour that leads to the establishment of a
pecking order in the group. While for the abnormal
behaviours, captive environments can cause
abnormality and several studies have already shown the
effect of enclosure size in the behaviour of captive
animals (Fisher at al., 1980; Estep et al., 1978; Innis et
al., 1985; Hogan et al., 1988; Jensvold et al., 2001).
Among of the examples are feather-pecking, toe and
face pecking, anorexia and many others. Therefore, this
study aimed to investigate the behaviour of ostriches in
the enclosure to get useful information and deficiencies
that can be overcome to serve as a guide to better
management of this species in the future.
2. Materials and Methods
The data were recorded by using focal
sampling method. The observation was conducted at
Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, Bachok Campus,
Kelantan, Malaysia (6°00'12.0"N 102°24'06.4"E)
where the ostriches were selected as the study subject
(Fig. 1).
A total of six ostriches were kept in captivity
and they were comprised of three males and females
respectively. The observations were conducted
accordingly for every 30 minutes intervals started from
0700 hrs until 1800 hrs. The observations were carried
out at three different periods; morning started from
0700 hrs to 1030 hrs, afternoon from 1100 hrs to 1430
hrs and evening from 1500 hrs to 1800 hrs. The
comparison of behaviours against periods of time was
calculated using Chi-square test.
Figure 1: Study area (source: Google Earth).
3. Results and Discussion
Resting behaviour of ostriches (S. camelus)
can be observed when they stopped moving from doing
any activities. There are three positions that
demonstrated the resting behaviour of the ostriches
namely standing, sitting and sleeping. From the results,
the most frequent resting behaviour observed was
standing (92%) followed by sitting (8%). These results
are similar with William et al., (1993), ostrich normally
spent about 16% of their normal daily behaviour on
standing followed by sitting which was 3%.
Meanwhile, there was none sleeping position that was
spotted during the observation period in which it
suggested that the ostriches only tend to sleep during
night time. This is due to the ostriches are diurnal
animals where they are most active early and late in the
day (Davies, 2003), but may be active on moonlit
nights. This is supported by Degen et al., (1989) and
Deeming (1998) that reported most ostriches sit during
sunset and were inactive all night. According to period
of time, the resting behaviours were highest in the
morning followed by evening and afternoon. The
difference in resting behavioural patterns between
different observational periods was significantly
difference (χ2=80.23, df=2, p≤0.05).

3. J. Trop. Resour. Sustain. Sci. 3 (2015): 13-17
ISSN Number: 2289-3946
© 2015 UMK Publisher. All rights reserved.
15
Locomotion behaviour can be divided into
three types namely walking, running and trembling.
Walking (92%) was the most frequent locomotion
behaviour observed followed by running (2%) and
trembling (0%). It was supported by Berendsen (1995)
which postulated that the ostriches at the farm in
Germany spent most their time walking rather than
running. According to Mushi et al., (2008), this
behaviour was gender-dependent with males spending
more time in walking probably because they watching
around predators while the females brood over the eggs
sitting on the nests. Meanwhile, trembling was a sign
of stress like during being cornered or transported, but
none of this behaviour was observed. Overall, this
locomotion behaviour was highest in the afternoon
followed by morning and evening. It was supported by
Mushi et al., (2008) which stated that in general, all the
age groups of ostriches spent about 60% of the
afternoon either standing or walking. The difference in
locomotion behavioural patterns between different
observational periods was not significantly difference
(χ2=4.32, df=2, p≥0.05).
Ingestive behaviour encompasses all eating
and drinking behaviours. In this study, ingestive
behaviour was divided into three namely tolerance,
drinking and pecking. Based on the observations,
pecking (69%) was the most frequent ingestive
behaviour observed followed by tolerance (24%) and
drinking (7%). Pecking activity was the most observed
in the morning due to scanty food supply. Consequently
they frequently walked around to forage for a food such
as an insect within the enclosure. This was supported
by Mushi et al., (2008) which stated that, since no
supplementation was done in the game reserve, the
ostrich had to make do with the available forage and
insects which were abundant in the reserve.
Meanwhile, tolerance was high during afternoon and
evening periods because it coincided with the time
when the food was distributed. It also supported by
Sambraus (1994) and Deeming (1998), where they
found that the higher food consumption was during the
food was supplied. Overall, the difference in ingestive
behavioural patterns between different observational
periods was significantly difference (χ2=6.62, df=2,
p≤0.05).
According to Mushi et al., (2008),
thermoregulations normally accomplished by flapping
of wings, open-mouth breathes or yawning and were
shown by ostriches in the afternoon as a means of
dissipating heat from the body. From the observations,
thermoregulation behaviour was found to be the
highest in the afternoon followed by evening whereas
none of thermoregulation behaviours were observed in
the morning. This was due to the high temperature in
the afternoon which required the ostriches to dissipate
more heat during this period. Similar results were found
by Muhsi et al., (2008). The difference in
thermoregulation behavioural patterns between
different observational periods was significantly
difference (χ2=178.76, df=2, p≤0.05).
Comfort behaviours include sand bathing;
care of plumage and other parts of body. During sand
bathing, the ostrich would lie down in a dry sandy
place. It would then push the neck into the sand using
snake-like motions and shovel sand over the body
(Muhsi et al., 2008). However, this behaviour has not
been observed during the research period. This was due
to the ostriches’ enclosure has no sandy areas. In order
to accustom the ostriches comfort behaviour, it would
therefore be recommended to set up sandy areas within
the enclosure for sand bathing activity to prevent stress
among farmed ostriches. For ratites like the ostriches,
the body care behaviour comprise of dust bathing and
plumage care (Kreibich and Sommer, 1995). The
ostriches are slightly different from the other species of
birds where they do not have uropygial gland or
formally known as the preen gland or the oil gland. The
functional of the gland is to clean the feathers naturally.
Based on the observations, grooming activity by
ostriches were to get rid of foreign objects embedded at
their feathers like leaves and dirt. This activity was
frequently done in the afternoon followed by evening
and morning. This may be because of dry conditions in
the afternoon due to high temperature that had been a
contributory factor to the highest frequency during this
period. The difference in comfort behavioural patterns
between different observational periods was
significantly difference (χ2=17.1, df=2, p≤0.05).
The aggression behaviour observed was the
threat behaviour. The threat was the behaviour when
the ostrich stand tall with tail erect, hissing, wings

4. J. Trop. Resour. Sustain. Sci. 3 (2015): 13-17
ISSN Number: 2289-3946
© 2015 UMK Publisher. All rights reserved.
16
slightly open and feathers puffed up, especially around
the neck. Based on the observations, aggression
behaviour was demonstrated when the ostriches faced
the disturbance like met the strangers and also when the
keeper came to fed them. This was supported by Muhsi
et al., (2008) which stated that, aggressive behaviour
was demonstrated between hens and cocks and also
towards human intruders. This behaviour was exhibited
by the male ostriches only. The aggression behaviour
was prevalent in the morning compared to both
afternoon and evening. The difference in aggression
behavioural patterns between different observational
periods was not significantly different (χ2=0.57, df=2,
p≥0.05).
4. Conclusion
As the conclusion, behaviours of captive
ostriches showed high difference between the different
observational periods. Only some behaviour that
showed the difference between male and female like
the aggression behaviour that only showed by the male.
Overall, standing recorded the highest occurrence for
the resting behaviour, walking was the highest
occurrence for the locomotion behaviour, and pecking
showed the highest frequency for the ingestive
behaviour. Lastly, it showed that the ostriches reared in
captivity displayed similar behavioural patterns to
those remaining in the wild, although some captive
circumstances impose minor differences.
Recommendations
The ostrich lack of uropygial gland, where it
was believed to help maintain the integrity of the
feather structure and the flexibility of feathers that
keeps feather barbules from breaking. Thus, in order to
care for their feather, normally they would prefer for
sand-bathing activity. However, during the carried out
research, the ground were covered with the grass,
where only small portion of sand, pebble and gravel
could be found. This condition had limited the ostriches
to do the sand-bathing activity and affected their
behaviour. Thus, the management should add more
sandy area in each pen, so that it will be available for
them to do this activity.
Second, the provided shelter in each pen was
not adequate for a pair of ostriches. It nearly only could
accommodate their drink and food where during the
rainy days, they were all wet and shivering. The ostrich
were originated from Africa, where they much adapted
with the warm condition. Thus, during rainy days, they
should have the shelter that could accommodate them
for their health.
Lastly, based on the interviewed, the
unsuitable type of land in the paddock had restricted the
growth of plants. Thus, the management should further
enhance the surrounding of enclosure on par to the
wild. According to Kock, (1996a; 1996b) the supply of
a more natural environment appears to ease the stress
seen in ostrich chicks bred in captive condition.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the Universiti
Malaysia Kelantan, Bachok Campus, Kelantan for the
permission granted to conduct this study.
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